Review of the Sumatra Carbine in .20

[Manco 16]

I have owned a Sumatra Carbine in .20 calibre for 2 years now and I feel sure that many members of this forum will be interested to learn more about this Korean pcp six-shot repeater. What follows is a review I wrote shortly after I took delivery of it.

 

I imported the Sumatra direct from a dealership in the USA – Mac1 Airgun Distributors –which turned out to be one of the few dealerships I came across willing to ship products to South Africa and willing to do so via US Mail. I will say more about Mac1 later, but first let me introduce the Sumatra Carbine…

 

Basic facts:

 

Maker: Eun Jin Industrial Co. of South Korea

Model: Sumatra Carbine 2500

Calibre: .20

Length: 35 inches

Barrel length: 16 inches

Weight: 6.6 pounds (un-scoped)

Action: Lever action, six-shot repeater

Power output: variable up to 50 fpe (approx.)

Accessories: Filler probe and spare 6-shot magazine supplied as standard.

 

The Sumatra Carbine is very similar in appearance to the Career 707 Mk2 Carbine which I bought new about eight years ago. Visually it’s a cross between an over-and-under shotgun and a lever-action Winchester Western rifle, with twin air cylinders stacked vertically below the barrel. You either love the look or hate it. Me – I love it.

 

The build quality is very good, with pleasing attention to detail evident in the bluing of barrel and cylinders, the chequering on the stock and fore-end, the finish of the machining and die-casting and the fit of wood to metal. Of particular note are the die-cast, silvered panels of the receiver depicting a hunting scene complete with fowls and hunting dogs, with a lake as a back-drop.

 

The barrel, from Lothar Walther I believe, is threaded to take a silencer which is fortunate as the bark of a Sumatra on full power seems to me louder than that of a rimfire and definitely needs taming. It comes with a thread protector fitted as standard. The thread size (10mm I think) is smaller than the more common ½ inch UNF.

 

The gun has open sights as well as an 11mm dovetailed rail for mounting a scope. I found that with the high-combed stock as supplied to the US market, the open sights were unusable and could really be dispensed with altogether– I simply couldn’t get my line of sight down low enough to make them work. This is my first (minor) criticism of the Sumatra.

 

The six-shot rotary magazine is tiny and a joy to behold and use – there are no moving parts, no spring to play up – you just insert six pellets, skirts down, and slide the mag into its slot in the receiver (the cocking lever must be in the down position to do this). It’s so simple. Retracting the lever cocks the action, and puts a pellet in the breach. The under-lever design means that the action can be cycled rapidly permitting a fast follow-up shot should you need one. The mag is made of translucent plastic with a metal backing plate and you can see how many pellets you have left to shoot. For use in the field, particularly during night time lamping, you would need to count your shots or put up with an irritating ‘dry-fire’ every seventh shot (just at the moment when you have the rabbit’s head in your cross-hairs)!

 

On the underside of the receiver just forward of the cocking lever is the power adjustment wheel with 13 pre-set adjustment positions representing one full turn of the wheel. For convenience, a black dot on the rim of the wheel marks ‘low’ power, blue is for medium and red is for high power. Although the gun is unregulated, by adjusting the power wheel to increase power after several shots, to compensate for lower air pressure in the cylinder, you can achieve very good shot-to-shot consistency in terms of fps. This has to be precisely calibrated using a chronograph: something Mac1 did for me for a small additional charge.

 

Forward of the power adjustment wheel, neatly recessed into the fore-end, is a built-in air pressure gauge calibrated in kilos per square centimetre. A boffin told me that the 200 mark on the scale corresponds to 3000psi, but it doesn’t really matter what the units of measure are,you can use it to tell you when to turn up the power wheel one notch or when to top up with air – very useful.

 

The Sumatra has a two piece ambidextrous stock with neat chequering. On an air rifle of this quality I would have liked to see a piece of decent hardwood with attractive figuring (my Career Carbine has a very nice piece of Indonesian walnut). The Sumatra's wood has a fine, even grain similar to stained beech – rather bland in my opinion.

 

Filling the gun with air is straightforward; there is a quick-fill aperture at the end of the lower air cylinder and the probe simply pushes into it. I use a Hill Mk2 hand pump with optional Dry-pack (an excellent piece of kit) and I found charging the rifle up to the recommended pressure of 3,000 psi to be no big deal – even from empty. In normal use the quick-fill valve is protected by a push-on dust cover.

 

To sight-in the rifle I fitted a Burris Fullfield 2 riflescope. This is a centre-fire rated optic with parallax set at 100 yards (it was previously fitted to my .223). It worked well enough but the usable range of magnification was limited to about 6 x when shooting at 35 yards. Normally, for a high powered hunting air rifle I would choose to zero at 50 yards but I was zeroing in my garden and I was keen to see some results. My chosen method was to use (19mm) circular self-adhesive labels, available at any stationery store, stuck on to a sheet of cardboard placed in front of a solid back-stop.

 

It was fortunate that the barrel of the Sumatra has the same size thread as that on my Career so I was able to use the silencer from the Career. This was custom made by Joe Young, a UK-based air gunsmith, to tame the muzzle blast of a Career on full power – and it does an excellent job on the Sumatra too.

 

After initial zeroing on a separate target, with the scope on 6 x magnification and using Crossman Accupells as ammo, I fired 3 consecutive shots at six labels to see what groups I could achieve. Shooting was from a standing position off crossed sticks with my back braced against a wall of my house.

 

I was pleased to see that apart from a couple of ‘fliers’ all shots were on the patches. My best effort – shown in the accompanying photo – resulted in 2 pellets in virtually the same hole with the 3rd close by. I’m not into measuring the size of groups but you can see that this 3-shot group is completely covered by a 10 Cent (SA) coin.

 

The trigger on the Sumatra, like that of the Career, is an adjustable 2-stage unit. The first stage is fairly slack, which I like, and the second stage let-off is crisp and light enough at a pull-weight of approx. 2 ½ pounds. Further lightening of the pull-weight is not advisable – it is not a ‘match’ trigger.

 

I have taken the gun out to a local farm on many occasions and frequently the unwitting participation of a guinea fowl or two has made for a satisfying outing. There is however one minor drawback to using the Sumatra in the field – it has no proper provision for fitting a rifle sling. It’s possible to fit QD swivel studs to the wood of the butt and the fore end but in my opinion the studs would be too close together. What’s needed is an adapter to enable a sling swivel to be fitted to the lower air cylinder. Given the large number of talented gunsmiths on the air-gunning scene someone, somewhere may have already made one.

 

So what’s the verdict on the Sumatra carbine so far? After a two-year trial I would say that this Korean thoroughbred has the Frys Turkish Delight seal of approval - it has delivered plenty of Eastern promise, and then some.

 

I will round off this review with a comment on Mac1 Airgun. This is a dealership that caters to the needs of the air rifle enthusiasts. Tim lightened the trigger pull-weight on the Sumatra to about 2 ½ pounds and replaced the barrel-to-receiver seal (a recognised point of weakness) with a better quality item. He will undertake further work such as calibrating power wheel settings to maximise shot-to-shot consistency at additional cost. A big plus for would-be customers living outside the USA is that Mac1 accepts international orders and will ship via US Mail – a massive cost saving passed on to customers when compared to the cost of using an international courier firm. Lastly, my order was securely double packed with the airgun in its own carton inside a larger carton, thus ensuring that everything reached me in excellent order. I would not hesitate to buy from Mac1 again should I discover a pressing need to add another air rifle to my small collection.

 

Postscript: I believe that Mac1 is no longer able to supply the Sumatra; I think Pyramid Air now has sole dealer rights in the USA (but please check this out if you are interested.) A suitable transfer port and exhaust valve restrictor is available for the Sumatra, to put the power sub 12 foot pounds.

[rossi_j 99]

Great read mate, nice rifle, love the ease with witch you can adjust the power.

.atb. .ste.

[roughcoat 8]

Great read mate bit of a Marmite gun love them hate them. Personally love the look of the rifle it's like something John Wayne would carry. I'll put one on my wanted list. Rob

[gurtwurz 793]

that's ace!!!

 

cheers, wurz